Home
by RobertDowneyJrLove
Summary: Stella Bonasera was finally home- and that home was in the arms of Mac Taylor! Oh yes, it's Smacked!


_Well I'm going home, _  
><em>Back to the place where I belong, <em>  
><em>And where your love has always been enough for me. <em>  
><em>I'm not running from. <em>  
><em>I don't regret this life I chose for me. <em>  
><em>But these places and these faces are getting old, <em>  
><em>So I'm going home. <em>  
><em>I'm going home.<em>

'Home'- Daughtry

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><p>A weary frown tugged at her lips, only serving to worsen the tired lines etched into her face. Shadows lingered in depths of olive green eyes and if eyes were truly windows to the soul, then Stella Bonasera's eyes would tell that she was tired and that she missed her best friend. The inky blackness of the night she stared into did little to hide the tiredness and the sadness that lingered on her face. If there was ever a time when she needed Mac Taylor more than she ever had before, than that time was most definitely now. No matter how hard she tried to hide it, the pain of wanting to go back to New York, to go back to her home, to go back to <em>him <em>always crept back.

Without a second thought, she pulled her cell phone from her back pocket and dialed a familiar number. She waited with baited breath, hoping that he would pick up. She needed him to pick up. She needed him to tell her that no matter what, she could always come home.

"Taylor?" His tired voice picked up after the third ring and almost immediately brought tears to her eyes.

She swallowed hard and blinked back the tears, forcing herself to respond. "Hi Mac."

"Stella.." Mac sighed, sinking down onto his couch, his best friend's voice soothing him in ways she couldn't even imagine. "It's good to hear your voice."

"You too. How's your new partner working out for you?" Stella asked him, not quite ready to broach the subject of the real reason she had called him, even though she knew it was nearing midnight in New York.

"She's not. She's trying to take your place and I can't let her do that. She's not you, Stella." Mac confessed softly, "It works out okay sometimes but most of the time, she tries to be the best friend that I have in you and fails."

"I'm sorry." Stella whispered apologetically, letting her eyes drift down the floor, ashamed at what she had done to her best friend.

"Don't be." Mac shrugged off her apology casually. "How are you? Still enjoying being the boss in New Orleans?"

"Mac," Stella choked out, blinking hard to stop the tears before they fell as the sadness crept into her voice. "Mac I just want to come home. Back to New York where I belong."

"Stell, I thought you loved it out there. What happened?" Mac asked her tenderly, his voice laced with concern.

"You were always enough for me, Mac." Stella told him softly, wiping her eyes as she tried to find the words to tell him about her need to come home. "I'm not running from it. I don't regret doing it but this place and the people I see everyday, it gets old. I want to be back home in New York. I don't want to be the boss of these people. I want to tell you to take care of yourself and I want to be your best friend. Not the boss of a Crime Lab so far away from my real home."

She was right. New York was her real home. It hadn't been the same since she left. He never felt like he was at home, even at his own apartment. It was always Stella who made him comfortable, who kept him from being too closed off from the world. It was Stella who had saved him from himself after the September 11th attacks.

It was Stella.

It had always been Stella.

And now to hear her almost sobbing over the phone because she wanted to come home and knowing that he couldn't do anything because he was thousands of miles away was breaking his heart. It didn't help that hers was already broken and he couldn't fix it.

Not yet, anyway.

"Stella," Mac started quietly, "Talk to me?"

"I don't know what to do, Mac." Stella told him, her voice thick with tears. "I really don't. I don't want to stay here but I don't think coming back will be that easy so I'm not sure it's my best option but that's all I want. I want to come home. I want to be back there with you. I don't know what to do, Mac."

"Come home, Stella."

That's all she needed.

xxx

The airport was buzzing with people by the time he arrived. He would have been there hours before her plane actually arrived but a messy and complicated call to Sinclair had quickly nipped his plans in the bud. That's not to say that the phone call hadn't had some impressive results, what with Stella's job now belonging only to her and Jo Danville now going back to wherever it was she came from. Sinclair was not the most reasonable man to deal with but he could be understanding when he needed to be. It had taken two hours and a rehashing- in detail- of Stella's imminent return to New York and to the Crime Lab as she had relayed it to him but he had gotten it done. It had been a three day wait after their conversation about her coming home and although he now despised the word patience, the wait was finally over. He would finally have her back.

He stood off to the side, content to just watch the flurry of reunions playing out before his eyes, knowing that soon he would be in the midst of his own reunion with his best friend.

Each passing minute that ticked by seemed like one less minute he would have to spend with her when she got here. He was impatient when it came to Stella. He was impatient when it came to her, stubborn when he fought for her, fierce about protecting her but beneath all of that, there was the soft spot. There was the part of Mac Taylor that was crazy about his best friend. That part was slowly creeping closer to the surface with each passing moment.

"Mac!"

He heard her before he saw her although with her tangled mess of golden brown curls it was kind of hard not to see her even without hearing her voice. When her face finally came into view, he wanted to- and if anybody asks he'll deny it all the way to his grave- cry. She looked beautiful even with the tired lines he could see etched onto her face even from across the airport. He melded into the crowd and carefully made his way toward her. When he emerged from the crowd, he found her waiting, bags in hand and tears threatening to leak from her olive green eyes.

"Stella," Mac smiled, watching her as she dropped her bags and rushed over to him.

Neither said a word as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against him, refusing to let her go, for fear of her leaving again. The tension that she had once thought to be a permanent resident in her back melted away as his hands found her back and his palm eased up and down her spine and his other tangled into the mess of curls at the base of her neck. She kept her arms wrapped around him tight, holding onto him as if her life depended on it.

It didn't matter that her bags were scattered on the floor or the fact that they had attracted an audience. All that mattered was the two of them, in that moment, when they both finally had what they wanted, what they needed. Nothing seemed to matter anymore as long as they had each other.

If asked later, neither of them will be quite sure how holding onto each other for dear life led to a passionate kiss in the middle of the crowded airport but both are glad it happened that way. The world faded away, the wolf-whistles and cat-calls went completely ignored and the fact that they were both so exhausted from everything they had been through seems unimportant. In that moment, they aren't partners or best friends or anything.

It was the moment when he was just Mac and she was just Stella.

It was the moment when they seemed fused together, leaving people unable to tell where one ended and the other ended. It was truly their moment and to say they had fully enjoyed it would have been the understatement of the century as neither are sure how long they'd been waiting to have that moment. Not the airport reunion spectacle but the kiss. The kiss that had made her glad she had come back home and being in the arms of the one man who made her feel like she belonged there all along.

And for once in her life, Stella Bonasera finally felt as if she was at home.

If wherever your heart may be or whoever it may be with truly was an indication of where your home was, then Stella had finally found her home. Her heart had always been with Mac and now she's discovered that her home had always been in his arms.

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><p><strong>This idea would not leave me alone! I had a crapload of stories that I needed to edit but after watching CSI:Ny today and feasting on every MacStella moment that can be found on youtube and in the three seasons I own, it just seemed to me that without each other they would never be truly complete and that she would never be at home anywhere unless she was with Mac. New Orleans would never be Stella's true home because Mac wasn't there. That and I listened to 'Home' by Daughtry about a thousand and one times and it really inspired this. It took me several hours and ten re-writes but here it is. Leave me some love Dolls! **

**Love ya bunches, **

**RobertDowneyJrLove**


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